Survey Says

^^ - A poll of what Americans want out of a stimulus package. Seems sensible, but along with those items, it would be nice to get Americans working again, paying taxes, feeding their kids. We do that by increased Federal spending on infrastructure projects... among other projects, with the side benefit of improving the things Americans use every day.

More people would have an income, and spend more money on services and goods, and the economy turns around.. benefiting everyone.

But look.. Americans want health care for the unemployed. I totally agree. Conservatives would rather those people go without, because they no longer have employer sponsored insurance. This includes children.. adversely affected by the economic down-turn due to no fault of their own.

Conservatives would rather people crash ER's for everyday illness. They'd rather people ruin their credit when they can't pay the ER bills, which in turn drives up the cost for everyone else... not to mention making everything harder for those people in the future due to bad credit scores.

Why not start extending "Universal Healthcare" by putting the unemployed, and their families, on Medi-Care? It'll cost us less in the long run.. which in this environment could only be a good thing.

Conservatives offer nothing. They want no Federal spending to stabilize the financial markets, and reverse the direction of unemployment. They want no benefits of any kind to those out of work. They think some mythical "charity" from religious organizations will help keep people from starving to death, or being homeless, or dying due to treatable illness. Ya right.

They advocate a completely Darwinian solution.. let the weak die.. because the natural consequence of "winning", is "losing". If the losers are too weak to survive, well then their loss simply leaves our country stronger.

They call it a "redistribution of wealth".. stealing from the successful and giving it to the losers. They rant on and on about entitlements.. and never.. ever.. explain what that actually means.

Heck, you know what I'd do if I had total authority in the matter? As soon as some out of work person comes in, looking to the government for a means to survive.. say.. food stamps to help feed their family.. or say.. medical treatment to help their son, stricken with cancer.. I'd have a check box on the application form.

If they check "Conservative" rather than "Liberal", I'd decline their application. Hypocrites don't deserve the greater social assistance. Their movement put us in this mess, and then they turn around and plea for help from Liberal programs? Fuck you.

Given a few decades, that Darwinian result would work in the nation's favor.

/update

Oh look.. the Republicans are opposing the stimulus bill.

On my teevee, Barbara Boxer basically said, "well, fuck them". In reality, she said "we'll do it without them".

I'd also like to see the Democrats, and especially Obama (with his near 80% approval rating) explain, over and over, to the American public what that means. The Democrats bent over backwards to try and accomodate the Republicans with pointless tax cuts.. and then they end up opposing it anyway.

They should go back to the original version of the bill, and stop playing these games with the Republicans, thinking that they are anything more than an obstructionist opposition. Ignore them.

/update 2

Conservative principles in action;

BAY CITY, Mich. – A 93-year-old man froze to death inside his home just days after the municipal power company restricted his use of electricity because of unpaid bills, officials said.

Marvin E. Schur died "a slow, painful death," said Kanu Virani, Oakland County's deputy chief medical examiner, who performed the autopsy.

Neighbors discovered Schur's body on Jan. 17. They said the indoor temperature was below 32 degrees at the time, The Bay City Times reported Monday.

"Hypothermia shuts the whole system down, slowly," Virani said. "It's not easy to die from hypothermia without first realizing your fingers and toes feel like they're burning."

Schur owed Bay City Electric Light & Power more than $1,000 in unpaid electric bills, Bay City Manager Robert Belleman told The Associated Press on Monday.

Dead for a thousand dollar bill. But hey.. he was a "loser" and the natural consequence of that is.. dying.

FFS, if I had known, I'd have paid the bill for him.

/update 3

Another "entitlement" freak... Sullivan;

My view is that fiscal conservatives should focus on entitlements and long-term spending commitments and let Obama own the short-term stimulus, as he must.

Sullivan also favors the so-called "flat tax", while admitting he is a "layman" on economic matters.

That is because Sullivan makes a lot of money..

The Social nets of Social Security and Medi-Care are vital programs, as are other programs such as food stamps. Americans like them... and if you are horrified by the prospect of more 90 year olds freezing to death in their homes, you better fucking get your mind wrapped around the consequences of what these assholes propose.

And why does Sullivan want a flat tax? Because he pays a disproportionate share of the tax burden in this country. So do John and I. And what happens in a flat tax? That tax burden is shifted equally among rich and poor.

And it ruins the middle class... while guaranteeing already wealthy people more wealth... and with the New Deal wiped out, if you do somehow manage to get old, you might as well just fucking die unless you managed to get wealthy also.

What amazes me is that these assholes.. like Doug Gibbs.. and Andrew Sullivan.. can talk about these things without actually explaining the repercussions of what they mean. They simply point to "spending". Ya? Explain what the fuck happens when that's all cut off. Explain what happens when you shift the tax burden totally onto the middle class.

Explain what the fuck happens when you end up with a two class society, and one of them works like a dog simply to survive - and not to thrive.

The French have a bit of history with that.. you fucking assholes.